Ultraviolet (UV) lights encompass lights having wavelengths of 4 to 400 nanometers. The longer wavelengths of the ultraviolet light spectrum are called black light, which have wavelengths slightly shorter than those that are normally visible and is generally safe for human viewing. Black light appears as a deep blue light because only a portion of the light has long enough wavelengths to be visible to human. For the purpose of this invention, blue black lights are simply called black light. An example of a shorter wavelength in the ultraviolet light spectrum is germicidal ultraviolet light that emits a much shorter wavelength that is dangerous to human skin and eyes.
The barely visible and invisible black light energizes objects with black light responsive pigments, such as fluorescent and/or phosphorescent pigments, which then re-emit the light in visible colors. This results in the object appearing to have an independent glow as if internally lit. Once a black light responsive object has been exposed to black light, it retains the glowing effect for a short period of time after the removal of the black light. Black lights have been used as a source of illumination in theatrical productions, amusement park rides and home use for illuminating art covered with fluorescent and/or phosphorescent paint, and for general atmospheric effects for numerous years.
A black light source is generally a tube, similar to a fluorescent tube that produces white light, of a certain length and is not conveniently portable due to the size and the need of either alternating current or large voltage direct current. While black light has been used to illuminate all sorts of fluorescent or phosphorescent objects, black light as a portable device has not been used. Using light emitting diodes (LEDs) that produce UV black lights (generally known as UV LED), black lights can now be incorporated into a hand-held device. The popularity of UV LEDs have increased due to its small size, which is typical of prior art LEDs, and it is powered by direct current such as batteries.
Toy guns are common with children and provide excitement of playing out the hunting and the hunted or shooting targets. Traditional toy gun resembles a real gun and projects fake bullets or pellets at relatively high speed. This type of toy gun is very dangerous to play with as the projectiles can severely injure a child, in particular, his/her eyes, due to the size and speed of the projectiles. Furthermore, ammunition is often lost after shooting from the gun.
In view of the increase in gun violence in today's society, traditional toy guns have been considered politically incorrect and parents minimize their children's exposure to toy guns. Due to the decrease in popularity of toy guns with rigid projectiles, toy guns that project soft or harmless projectiles have increased their popularity in recent years.
Prior art toy guns with soft projectiles include toy water gun, toy air guns and toy guns that uses soft foam disks as ammunitions. A typical prior art toy gun using soft foam disks has a tubular spring-loaded cartridge having an open end and a closed end for storing a plurality of foam disks stacked in a planar fashion. The open end of the cartridge is removably attached to a main body of the toy gun. A spring loaded trigger mechanism in the main body engages one disk at a time from the cartridge and expels it from the toy gun. Some prior art toy guns provide sound and external light effect, such as beeping and with limited lights directed towards the target upon actuating the trigger mechanism, for added entertainment. After all of the disks are discharged from the cartridge, a user needs to collect all the scattered disks and reinsert them into the cartridge. Disadvantageously, the foam disks discharged from this type of prior art toy guns are often lost due to the size of the disks and are often not recovered. Further, this type of prior art toy guns do not provide for use in a dark environment because the disks cannot be easily recovered.
Therefore, there is a need for a toy gun that facilitates the recovery of its ammunitions, provides for use in a dark environment and provides added entertaining values.